KOHAT: The people have demanded opening of the existing wildlife parks in Kohat district for public to provide families, especially children, amusement and knowledge.

They said that there were three wildlife parks in Kohat, but local people were deprived of the benefits to learn about the wildlife in their natural habitat. They said that these parks could be run as mini zoos to provide an opportunity to the schoolchildren to learn about the wildlife.

Wildlife range officer, Kohat, Shabbir Ahmed said that at present there was no such project to set up a zoo here.

He said that zoos cost the government a big amount of money for feeding the animals and birds and taking their care by professional staff.

Opening of parks for public sought

There are hog deer, chinkara, blue bull, orial and other species in the Kotal (1987) Tanda Dam (1991) and Togh Manglore (2005) wildlife parks besides a good number of birds like pheasants, peacocks, etc.

The Kotal wildlife park, which was the nearest to the city along the old hilly track, was spread over 145 acres. At present, the parks have more than 150 pairs of hog deer and chinkara and they were regularly breeding and giving birth to healthy calves, sad Mr Ahmed.

He said that since 2005 no new project had been approved for the wildlife so that they could buy more different kind of animals and turn the parks into mini zoos or buy vehicles for showing the visitors animals from a close range.

People are not being encouraged to visit Kotal park which could be opened by issuing an order by the government. One can have a bird’s eye view of the park and the animals there from the high Kotal Pass.

The deer could be seen in the afternoon when they come down from mountains for grazing.

Mohammad Imtiaz, a TMA officer, suggested that the government could persuade the oil companies working in the area to make investment in construction of a zoo.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2015

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